LEVI BEN GERSHOM (Ralbag; Provence, 1288-1344). Commentaries on Averroes. MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
[Spain, 15th century]
2o (285 x 220 mm). 191 leaves (foliated 4-194) + 3 blank unnumbered leaves after fols. 80 and 125, with old Hebrew foliation. Brown ink. Sephardic semi-cursive script. With old marginal annotations in various hands. (First three leaves missing, soiling and extensive dampstaining, many leaves at beginning and end with old repairs, affecting text.) Nineteenth-century half morocco, two nineteenth-century flyleaves at the front and one additional older flyleaf, with inscription dated 1773, three nineteenth-century flyleaves at the back.
CONTENTS:
I. Fols. 1r-80v: on the Middle Commentary on the Physics (composed in 1321). First three leaves missing, and first extant leaves damaged. The text is known in about ten other manuscripts. See M. Steinschneider, Die hebrischen bersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher (Berlin 1893) p. 118-119.
II. Fols. 81r-125v: on the paraphrase of De anima (composed in 1324). See Steinschneider, ibidem, p. 147.
III. Fols. 126r-171v: on the paraphrase of the Physics (composed in 1321). See Steinschneider, ibidem, p. 119.
IV. Fols. 172r-194v: on the paraphrase of De sensu et sensibili. Exists in three other manuscripts: New York, JTS Mic. 2457; Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Or. Fol. 1055; and Oxford, MS Opp. Add. Qu. 38. Ch. II, section 3 was published by A. Altmann in Proceedings of the American Association of Jewish Research 46-47 (1980) English section, p. 1-30.
PROVENANCE:
1. Moses ben Menahem [Mendelssohn] of Dessau presented the manuscript to Rabbi Zevi Hirsh Levin, Chief-Rabbi of Berlin, on Purim 5533 (= 1773) (on the old third paper flyleaf).
2. Mordecai ben [...] (faded, fol. 188v).
REFERENCES: Neubauer, no. 43, p. 18-19; Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jerusalem, F 4712.